Johnson wins delayed Talladega

Johnson ran near the front all day but led only a handful of laps. Importantly though, he led the last one to take the win, his first at Talladega and third win this season.

Tony Stewart took second to make it his sixth second place finish at Talladega, while Brian Vickers made it a Hendrick 1-3 by finishing in third place.

Jeff Burton in another Chevrolet finished fourth before Jamie McMurray finally secured a good finish with fifth in his Ford.

While it was a good finish for Johnson and Vickers, teammate Jeff Gordon ended the race in fifteenth despite running second with just over a lap remaining, having led nearly a third of the race. He finished one place ahead of another driver who was fast all day, pole sitter Elliott Sadler.

The race started with fierce battles at the front, and it was little surprise when the first caution came out on lap nine after a 12-car incident which ended the hopes of drivers such as Mark Martin, Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch.

The race settled down after this, with the occasional caution making an appearance, including one just before half-distance when Dale Earnhardt Jr had a single car spin in turn three, avoiding the walls and getting only light contact from Tony Stewart when he was nearly at a stop.

As the race crossed the 100 lap mark, the action began to heat up again, the lead regularly changing.

With 35 laps remaining, sentimental favourite Dale Earnhardt Jr's hopes went up in a cloud of smoke when his engine failed, possibly a legacy of his earlier spin. The field pitted as they could make it to the end from here without another stop... just.

Just over 20 laps before the end, Bobby Labonte's engine followed in similar fashion. About half the field chose to make a stop, taking a little fuel as well as tyres.

A six car crash just a few laps later set up a nine lap dash to the finish. If the action had been hot before, it reached new heights in these closing laps.

All three Hendrick cars ran at the front during the closing laps, but the decisive move came as they crossed the finish line to begin the final lap, Johnson diving inside Vickers.

From there Johnson kept Stewart on his rear bumper to take the win.

Pos  Driver              Make       Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   188
 2.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   188
 3.  Brian Vickers       Chevrolet   188
 4.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   188
 5.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        188
 6.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        188
 7.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       188
 8.  Carl Edwards        Ford        188
 9.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       188
10.  Robby Gordon        Chevrolet   188
11.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet   188
12.  Dale Jarrett        Ford        188
13.  Jeremy Mayfield     Dodge       188
14.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   188
15.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   188
16.  Elliott Sadler      Ford        188
17.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   188
18.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       188
19.  Travis Kvapil       Chevrolet   188
20.  Casey Mears         Dodge       188
21.  Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet   188
22.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   187
23.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   187
24.  Dave Blaney         Dodge       182
25.  Michael Waltrip     Dodge       179
26.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       177
27.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   173
28.  Kevin Lepage        Ford        173
29.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       163
30.  Chad Chaffin        Chevrolet   152
31.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   151
32.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   150
33.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       106
34.  David Stremme       Dodge       106
35.  Mark Martin         Ford        100
36.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet    97
37.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet    91
38.  Greg Biffle         Ford         45
39.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge        17
40.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet    16
41.  Kirk Shelmerdine    Chevrolet     9
42.  Ken Schrader        Ford          8
43.  Hermie Sadler       Ford          8